Intentions & effects: the rhetoric of current cultural policy in England

Abstract

As its title suggests, this thesis - the critical commentary together with a body of
published works - questions the effectiveness of cultural policy with respect to
museums and galleries in England.
Its focus is on cultural policy under New Labour, and its implementation through the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in particular. The department was
established within months of the 1997 election and was intended to ensure the
effective delivery of government objectives from the outset. This entailed the
department's 'comprehensive reform' of the `cultural framework', its pursuit of an
instrumentalist agenda and its desire to determine and direct the effectiveness of its
sponsored bodies. This effort was predicated on the assumption that there is an
implicit and highly determined relationship between policy, funding, implementation
and outcomes.
Nevertheless, however strategic DCMS's actions might have been, there is little hard
evidence of its effectiveness. The process of converting intention into effect appears
to have proved more problematic than the rhetoric suggests.
In setting out and supporting that proposition, this thesis describes those policies
which have determined support for the cultural sector since 1997, particularly in
respect of museums and galleries. It considers their background and implementation,
summarises the financial value of the support provided and interrogates the evidence
as to their outcomes. It argues that, as yet, many of the objectives shared by DCMS
and its so-called 'family' of sponsored bodies have not yet been delivered, and that
many of the claims made for the subsidised cultural sector more generally remain
unsubstantiated. It also points to recent signs that suggest that the department is now
wavering on its original ambitions.